tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post7950064865797362689..comments2023-06-05T11:51:38.383-04:00Comments on Evolutionary Psychiatry: Wheat, Rice, and Children's BrainsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04429177284200775781noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-19015484926211280292014-10-27T11:03:07.953-04:002014-10-27T11:03:07.953-04:00Hi Emily!
Love your blog, this is my first time c...Hi Emily!<br /><br />Love your blog, this is my first time commenting; sorry for coming this late to an old post. <br /><br />Andrew's already said what I wanted to say but I really wanted to highlight the point. The traditional Japanese breakfast consists of: <br /><br />white rice<br />miso soup<br />fresh vegetables<br />pickled vegetables<br />some protein, typically fish and/or egg<br /><br />In a hotel or restaurant it's a pretty substantial meal. At home it's often fresh rice plus leftovers from dinner the night before. <br /><br />In natto-eating regions of Japan, natto too is a breakfast food, typically eaten with rice and a quail's egg. <br /><br />Put a bunch a typical Japanese traditional breakfast foods into nutrtiondata and you've got some pretty nutrient-dense stuff there. <br /><br />As someone who's lived all over East Asia, I've had to smile, when reading the paper, at the typical habit of referring to rice and bread as if they were the only important thing at the meal and referring to everything else as side dishes. But it's literally true: in a traditional Japanese meal you have a bowl of rice in front of you and everything else is indeed on the side. <br /><br />Andrew could have gone even further about the 'bread' in Japan and other East Asian countries: the line between 'bread' and pastry is even blurrier than it is in the West, and the bread sold in typical stores is frankly sweet, made with lots of oil and sugar and often topped or stuffed with something sweet and yes, eaten with jam. 'Bread' is short-hand for anything from a croissant (In Nara I once saw hundreds of people lined up outside a croissant bakery early in the morning) to a donut to toast with jam. But whatever it is, it is not typically eaten with vegetables and fish unless I'm greatly mistaken. <br /><br />So a few points: people in Japan who eat rice for breakfast are the more traditional type. They're highly unlikely to be eating just rice, whatever the side dishes are. People eating bread, on the other hand, are more likely to be the 'sweets and caffeine' for breakfast types. <br /><br />What the paper says (three times) is that they accounted for the 'number' of 'side dishes' eaten. I don't think the important thing is the number but the quality. I find it hilarious that they should concentrate so exclusively on the white carbs, treat everything else as a distraction, and then speculate that the advantage of rice is that bread has more fat. (which it does: probably soy oil....) <br /><br />Finally, I have to point out that as in America, a family that sits down to a cooked traditional breakfast probably has other advantages over people who eat a pastry for breakfast: probably parents with more time or who care more, a more traditional eating pattern over all. <br /><br />Christopher Tricaricktelemachoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16921469737306266461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-39873001461112197412011-07-14T12:17:40.937-04:002011-07-14T12:17:40.937-04:00FWIW, Kelloggs just came out with a gluten free ve...FWIW, Kelloggs just came out with a gluten free version of Rice Krispies. For some odd reason, they made it a separate product instead of just removing the malt like General Mills did with Chex.Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10115414009348489064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-84837035293055628562011-07-13T21:45:49.078-04:002011-07-13T21:45:49.078-04:00My kids eat eggs and bacon......and if they dont l...My kids eat eggs and bacon......and if they dont like they get eggs and sausage. Cereal went long ago. my kids have been this way going on three yrs. Wife is on board 18 months. Dr. K.johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11126132841611727249noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-47592339244870971052011-07-13T21:29:33.286-04:002011-07-13T21:29:33.286-04:00> Wheat, Rice, and Children's Brains
One o...> Wheat, Rice, and Children's Brains<br /><br />One of these things is far more nutritious than the others...sustenirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07138941134660625930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-26192807519370296912011-07-13T00:11:21.299-04:002011-07-13T00:11:21.299-04:00@Peter, thanks for the tip to try Rice Chex. I'...@Peter, thanks for the tip to try Rice Chex. I'll look into it and see if the kiddies approve. My kids also love to eat a lot of rice or mashed potatoes with a little bit of protein/fat on the side.Aaron Blaisdellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17204484453346358921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-45283162998840393492011-07-12T23:05:31.933-04:002011-07-12T23:05:31.933-04:00Aaron:
Do what I did: Find candy bars with superi...Aaron:<br />Do what I did: Find candy bars with superior nutritional quality to the cereal and serve those instead. Suddenly the wife sees a different point of view.<br /><br />In my case it was snickers versus pop-tarts. Turns out the snickers were slightly lower in carbs, lower in total calories, higher in protein and had no hydrogenated oil!<br /><br />Watching my kids sitting at the table for breakfast wolfing down a snickers bar and knowing that was actually superior to a pop-tart made me laugh. And it finally convinced my wife to toss the pop-tarts and we started cooking eggs in the morning. :)Bill Strahanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17021720706311491283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-6112600149872070242011-07-12T21:52:00.738-04:002011-07-12T21:52:00.738-04:00Andrew - in the paper they had some detailed info ...Andrew - in the paper they had some detailed info about typical breakfast sides and *claim* to have accounted for it statistically - but you are right - confounders in studies like these are overwhelming. Interesting to know that about sweet bread in Japan too. <br /><br />Jamie, thanks for pulling that paper! Sugar with an extra helping of O6 as usual. As we all suspected, I'm sure...<br /><br />Peter - my oldest likes rice, the youngest would love to eat meat, fruit, and olives exclusively... Oh, and yogurt.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04429177284200775781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-53288227287675311542011-07-12T21:31:12.025-04:002011-07-12T21:31:12.025-04:00I live in Japan and can confirm that Japanese are ...I live in Japan and can confirm that Japanese are fairly cleanly split between old-school rice-for-breakfast types and toast-for-breakfast types. My own observations as a high school teacher here would also suggest that the bread-eaters have a much shorter attention-span. I wouldn't be surprised if the wheat had something to do with it, but there are two things I would blame before the wheat. First, the bread-eaters are typically more likely to scoff down a piece of toast before rushing out the door, while the rice-eaters are more likely to sit down with the family to a proper Japanese breakfast complete with miso soup a bit of grilled fish or eggs, some greens, pickles and maybe even some natto. Second, especially in Japan, the bread is very sweet - plenty of added sugar - not to mention that it's usually eaten with jam. Seems a little simplistic to break it down as rice vs wheat.Andrew Wallacehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10376053090146785728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-73992022010977659592011-07-12T21:29:49.894-04:002011-07-12T21:29:49.894-04:00My n=1 observation: when my small kids sit in fron...My n=1 observation: when my small kids sit in front of a dinner plate of non-toxic foods, say white rice with butter, hamburger patty, and salad, they will eat a few bites of protein, maybe twice as many bites of the salad, and a whole lot of rice. Oh, and they really want the rice (or other starch) to have plenty of butter on it.<br />Also, I'm in the same situation as Aaron - my wife likes the kids to eat breakfast cereals. I don't like the malt flavoring in Rice Krispies because it contains gluten so my solution has been gluten-free Rice Chex.Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04453691463753177119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-22272968973749032212011-07-12T19:57:34.443-04:002011-07-12T19:57:34.443-04:00BTW - this was my breakfast every day for 20+ year...BTW - this was my breakfast every day for 20+ years growing up...<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weet_bix<br /><br />Gives me an out in the gray matter dept me thinks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-12577427216048223252011-07-12T19:55:37.488-04:002011-07-12T19:55:37.488-04:00I read the paper last night with the intention of ...I read the paper last night with the intention of blogging on it. It got put in the 'can't be bothered with explaining why I don't think it is the glycaemic index' bin.<br /><br />I also struggled with their explanation that it might be the fat content of the bread... that is an easy exit to keep the word count down for these researchers. I pulled the paper they referenced with regard to this...<br /><br />http://www.ibp.ucla.edu/research/gomezpinilla/publications/Diet803.pdf<br /><br />A HIGH-FAT, REFINED SUGAR DIET REDUCES HIPPOCAMPAL BRAIN-DERIVED NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR, NEURONAL PLASTICITY, AND LEARNING<br /><br />Sugar + Lard + Corn Oil. Nuff said.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-34544121560503935162011-07-12T13:18:14.337-04:002011-07-12T13:18:14.337-04:00My kids are hooked on breakfast cereals, and my wi...My kids are hooked on breakfast cereals, and my wife won't let me turn them primal, so my mission has been to find the least offensive breakfast cereal around that the kids find acceptable. A couple of months ago, I've settled on Rice Krispies. I know there's added sugar, but it's not terribly high compared to most big brand breakfast cereals. And I serve it with a whopping dose of raw milk, so they're getting plenty of CLA, fat-soluable vitamins, and probiotics.Aaron Blaisdellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17204484453346358921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045634714760830992.post-65367833316164537662011-07-12T12:59:27.370-04:002011-07-12T12:59:27.370-04:00Very interesting paper, and good of you not to jum...Very interesting paper, and good of you not to jump to conclusions although it is probably fair to conclude something.<br /><br />Fat content of grains isn't usually very much saturated fat, but polyunsaturated fat. From nutritiondata.com 200 calories of white bread contains 500mg of omega-6, so that sounds a bit more plausible to me. However these are still small amounts of fat and if you ask these authors what they think of olive oil they are of course going to be fans, so fat is probably a distraction from the real issue. <br /><br />I also think that comparing the GI is a distraction from a more important issue. Nutrition is poor in both white rice and white bread; this study isn't very compatible with the notion that the difference between whole grains and refined grains is just nutrition and fiber content.<br /><br />Looks like your stack of papers to blog on is starting to rival your stack of books to read. Yikes! At least your brain is more or less bread-free.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com